GRE evaluation criteria in universities outside USA

Hello readers, how was your week; I surely hope it was better than that of mine.

Anyhow, in my last article regarding GRE, I wanted to illustrate how GRE is very much important not only in the universities in the USA, but also almost all over the world, specially in those places where the course language or the medium of instruction happens to be in English. Therefore, if someone wants to get into any of these universities where the medium of instruction is English, he will have to face GRE for getting a step ahead of other contestants. In this article I have made an effort to discuss the evaluation of GRE for some of the most popular destinations of students for higher studies all over the world other than USA. I have made an effort to discuss Canada, Australia, UK, New Zealand, Germany and other European countries.

GRE Evaluation in Canada:

Universities in Canada, despite many rumors, accepts GRE as much as USA not only for admission but also for granting scholarships. We have to know one thing that almost all Universities in Canada have GRE promo code where any candidate may send their GRE score directly from ETS. For instance, the GRE Institution code of University of Toronto (top-most ranked University in Canada) is: 0982. Just like that, all the top-ranked universities such as UBC, MacGill, Alberta, Waterloo and many others as such, they have their specific institution codes. The question is, what are those institution codes doing there; are they just for show; not at all. They are their for good reason. All the top-ranked universities in Canada accept GRE. Now the question is, what should be the minimum score for GRE to be selected in any of these glorious institutions; here I must invoke a saying, “the bigger, the better”!!!

GRE Evaluation in Australia:

Australia is a bit tricky to analyze with respect to GRE. Sitting for a GRE test may not be as mandatory as we all would like to give it a credit for in case of Australia. Because universities of Australia has their own way of evaluating candidates which is kind of different from the rest of the world. For instance, they always need more and more Computer Engineers or Computer Scientists or Engineers in Australia. Therefore scholarships are very much available in these fields, regardless you have a GRE score or not. A simple academic module of IELTS with a band score of 7.00 and a CGPA (in Engineering) of 3.00+ may suffice, even for a scholarship. However, if we are talking about having an MBA or a business degree, a score of 325+ in GRE or a score of 700+ in GMAT may not be enough to grant a scholarship. Because Australian government (being a bit racist to begin with) only wants the pure-blooded Australians to study business and start companies where Engineers and tech-wheezes will come from the third world countries like our’s and serve these Australian entrepreneurs. However, still they have GRE institution codes and top universities like ANU, Uni-Melb etc they are accepting GRE and granting scholarships on that basis.

GRE Evaluation in UK:

Whenever we talk about UK and universities in that area, universities like the Oxford and Cambridge comes to mind before anything. Speaking for myself, once upon a time, I would only understand these two universities and no other. So the question is does these two universities accept GRE; yes they do. Because they also have GRE institution codes embedded with them. That means the official GRE score can be sent their directly from the ETS. Which means, those universities also accept GRE more or less. There are certain universities though which accept GRE as an essential requirement. For instances, London School of Economics (LSE), to be accepted there for Masters course in Economics or any relevant subject, the quantitative score of GRE must be 163 or above. Just like that, University College of London, University of Manchester and many others deem it essential to have GRE as an admission requirement. And I don’t know if you have any idea or not, these universities are the most prominent ones in UK, right after the legendary Oxford and Cambridge off-course.

GRE Evaluation in New Zealand:

Universities in New Zealand, though not that much popular, many universities in New Zealand accepts GRE as their mandatory admission requirement. However, as I have mentioned before, it is not that much popular among universities out their. Nevertheless, there are many scholarship opportunities in New Zealand such as “New Zealand Fulbright  Scholarship”, to apply there the candidate must take a GRE test and submit the score. Just like that, many other scholarship requirement demand GRE score, and a good one, to be qualified to even apply for those.

GRE Evaluation in Germany:

Let me start with my own experience regarding Germany. I applied for three prominent universities in Germany in 2014 Winter session. They were TUM (Technical University of Munich), RWTH Aachen University and Dresden University. I got admission in all of them, and my GRE score (along with my IELTS score) worked great in this regard. However, I also applied at Stuttgart University, but could not get admission there. However, my over-all experience was a win for me and my GRE played a big role on that. I just want to mention one thing here, In Germany, if the medium of instruction for any course in in English, then that course will mostly require a GRE score.

GRE Evaluation in European Universities:

Recently, most of the universities in Europe are getting inclined towards American Standardized tests to select international students. One of the main reasons for that may be (I am not sure of it, but I guess this may be a reason), a huge chunk of students are coming to Europe from USA to study not only arts and Culture but also business and commerce. We have all heard of a business school based of France called INSEAD, which happens to be one of the most prominent business schools in the world. Here in this school, for an MBA, GMAT or GRE (with a good-enough score) is essential. Not only INSEAD, but also universes such as the Delft in Netherlands, Helsinki in Finland, Uppsala in Sweden, KTH in Zurich – they are also accepting GRE scores form international candidate. Also, we should talk about Erasmus-Mundus scholarship where there are extra points allocated for the GRE scores of any candidate. Therefore, it is kind of essential to sit for GRE even for European universities.

In conclusion, I would like to say one thing. Before getting involved with any of these universities, a candidate should really do some thorough researches regarding the requirement of these universities. Some university who accepted GRE last year may not accept it this year. Some university may be totally the opposite. Also there is a matter of prioritized institutions; for instance, University of Melbourne in Australia has a list of universities from all the countries all over the world. If you are not from one of those universities in their list, no matter how high is your score, your application won’t even be opened in the first place. Now that is one university, others are not as stubborn as Uni-Melb, I suppose!!!

That’s it for today. From the next article, I will start discussing the subject matters as well as some problems with solutions. 

Till then, happy reading!!!